Belfast drops Crosby Center as voting venue after controversial summer event

BELFAST, Maine — Less than a month after the Crosby Center in Belfast hosted the controversial “Arise USA! Resurrection Tour,” the city dropped the center as one of its municipal voting locations.

Belfast City councilors decided at Tuesday night’s regular meeting to move the downtown voting venue from the Crosby Center to a Main Street building owned by the Tarratine Tribe No. 13. At the meeting, councilors did not mention the July 27 event, which was organized by conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele and described by some as a union of COVID-19 denialism and far-right extremism. Nevertheless, it was a factor in the decision, according to Councilor Neal Harkness.

After the event, city officials heard from a number of residents who said they would no longer feel comfortable about voting at the Crosby Center, which is privately owned, he said Thursday.

“We did get a fair number of complaints from people who felt … that they had a partisan political rally at a polling place, and people were uncomfortable about that,” Harkness said. “And also regarding the virus. People wanted to make sure that this would be a safe place [to vote].”

Read more: https://bangordailynews.com/2021/08/20/news/midcoast/belfast-drops-crosby-center-as-voting-venue-after-controversial-summer-event/